Planning your Crisis Communications - Top Tips

When the wheel falls off… follow this 10 point plan!

1. Avoid the word ‘Crisis’. Call it Incident Management.

2. Select your Incident Management Team (IMT). How?

• Draw from all areas of the organisation those able to take operational decisions and have access to policy decision-makers.

• Avoid building a team of like-minded people. To be effective you need diverse skills from creative, ideas to meticulous record keepers.

• Nominate one deputy for each member - incidents can happen any time and team members may be unavailable.

3. The IMT should identify your various stakeholder groups and show how to contact each of them in a hurry.

Don't forget internal stakeholders. Whatever information goes out externally must be communicated internally at the same time Communicate face-to-face where possible.

Traditional and online media together offer the only universal and speedy means of communication with all your stakeholder groups at once.

4. Brainstorm, the question “What if...?” This process must include potential problems involving mismanagement and mistakes as well as those in which you are likely to be perceived as the victim.

5.Prepare appropriate ‘holding’ statements for different scenarios you might face. The most effective and powerful key messages at points of crisis remain constant. Remember the acronym CARE, standing for Concern, Action and Reassurance when developing your messages.

6. Proven facts are often in very short supply in the early stages of an incident so state only the facts you've got and stick to the CARE messages at every media contact. Keep up-to-date Fact-sheets and make available to journalists.

7. Have arrangements in place to upload information and statements instantly onto your website, or a microsite related to it. Divert media calls to it. If there is widespread media interest, yconsider holding a press conference.

8. Road-test your Plan and the skills of the IMT through regular (at least annual) training and exercises. Communication at times of crisis is too important to be left to the professional spokesperson so make sure the whole team is media trained. 

9. Start thinking about and implementing the ‘recovery’ phase as soon as practicable. Tactics should be based on open communication. The media can also be your friend.

10. And finally... try to prevent crisis from happening in the first place. A key function for the IMT should be to flag up to colleagues the risk issues facing them – for instance, changes in public opinion. Try to ensure that these issues are considered at a policy-making level.